I've shot some Ilford Pan F+ at ei 25. I have Rodinal developer. I shot the film outdoors on a partly cloudy day - some of the shots were under sunny conditions and some were cloudy. I am using a Nikon 35mm.

Does anyone have suggestions that have worked for them concerning developer ratio/development time/agitation times/fixing times?

I know this film+developer combo has been brought up before. I have done some searching around this forum and other forums online with limited success. However, I usually end up with results of Pan F+ developed in a different developer or a different film all together and wind up spending hours of time I don't have. That's why I am asking here for this specific combination rated at shot at ei 25.

Also, if any could point me to examples of Ilford Pan F+ shot at ei 25 developed in Rodinal (preferably with dev. times) - it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for all of your input and assistance.

03-28-2012, 08:46 AM

JCJackson

When in doubt, I use the Massive DEvelopment Chart: http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php. It indicates a dilution of 1+100 and a time of 15 minutes, with standard agitation. This could be difficult if you have only a single roll in a small (250 ml) tank, since it is recommended that the tank contain a minimum of 5 ml of Rodinal per roll to assure complete development. The easy way around this would be to use 5 ml in a 500 ml tank, and add a second empty reel to keep things from sloshing around too much during agitation.

Hope this helps!

03-28-2012, 10:03 AM

Gerald C Koch

Pan F+ is a rather problematic film in that it develops contrast very quickly. You are right in wanting to reduce the EI. Whenever I use this film I expose at EI of 32 and develop in D-23 1+1. You are using a low contrast developer with a high contrast film to tame it. This film/developer combo is excellant. D-23 is very easy to make and very economical since it contains only 2 ingredients. If you don't have a scale there are teaspoon versions on the web.

03-28-2012, 10:25 AM

Michael R 1974

I'm not a Rodinal user but I suspect most people would use Pan F+ with Rodinal diluted in the 1+100 range to help tame contrast. The decision to downrate it really depends on how much shadow detail you want and how much contrast you develop to. Rating it at 25 sounds about right but that would be for my taste. Others might disagree.

Personally I'd tend to lean more in Gerald's direction but it really depends on what kind of tonality you prefer, how much grain etc. I go for the best balance of fine grain/sharpness I can get, and for me that's not Rodinal, mostly because I have never found Pan F+ to be as fine grained as I expect for its speed. So rather than use Rodinal I prefer dilute solvent developers such as XTOL 1+3, ID11 1+3 etc. At these dilutions general purpose solvent developers are essentially as sharp as Rodinal, but finer grained. Tonality is a little different than Rodinal but this can be adjusted/manipulated. I'd use D23 in the same way (1+3). At stock strength or 1+1 I have not personally found D23 to be a low contrast developer, and it would be less sharp than Rodinal at those dilutions too.

03-28-2012, 10:39 AM

ROL

Start with digitaltruth as the rest of us do. 1+100 @ 15 minutes sounds about right for somewhat limited contrast.

I shoot with 120 Pan F fairly often developed in Rodinal and I follow the times recommend on the Massive Development Chart.

I do however modify their recommendations a tad in that I develop slightly colder than 68 degrees (usually 66), increase my time a little bit, and I agitate very gently to tame the contract, particularly when I know my lighting was contrasty. When shooting on an overcast day I just develop as normal.

03-28-2012, 12:44 PM

thenikonknight

Thanks for the input. I almost forgot about the massive dev chart.

A couple of other questions came to mind. Would fixing for 5mins be acceptable here? I had experienced problems in the past with not fixing long enough. Also, is a stop bath recommended?

I went to the Ilford site and saw for agitation they state, "invert the tank four times during the first 10 seconds, then invert the tank four
times again during the first 10 seconds for each further minute."

Does that agitation seem a bit much for this film?

Also, can anyone point me to some sample images of Pan F+ @ ei 25 using Rodinal? I'd like to have something to compare.
Thanks again!

03-28-2012, 12:48 PM

Colin Corneau

I shoot Pan-F+ a lot, in Rodinal 1:50. Contrast was never a problem for me, but I like my images to have contrast.

An individual's particular development regiment changes a lot from person to person, but 14 minutes works well for me, at 20 degrees Celsius. I don't go crazy on agitation, just the standard recommended amount.

03-28-2012, 01:51 PM

vpwphoto

I used a two bath developer that the Zone Vi studios used to sell. My stuff was wonderful...
Don't use Pan F too much as of late.